Commercial Truck Painting Near Me - Pakistan's painted trucks are works of art All over the world, trucks are essential everyday vehicles. In Pakistan, trucks are also canvases for dazzling works of art. Truck art also served a social good and helped retrieve missing children.
Painter Irfan Mohammad works from a truck in a sprawling workshop in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Claire Harbage/hide caption
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RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — Everything about Pakistani trucks is exuberant and over-the-top, from the colors to the eye-catching designs and intricate wood carvings on the doors. Each is elaborately decorated and no two trucks are alike.
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"When we decorate it, we hope people will look at our truck with love," says Muhammad Ejaz Mughal, a former truck artist who learned the trade from his father and now runs a small studio out of his home. "When a truck is decorated, we consider it like a bride, decorate and take care of it."
The inside of a truck in Rawalpindi. For drivers and artists who decorate their vehicles, Pakistani trucks are more than just trucks. Claire Harbage/hide caption
The inside of a truck in Rawalpindi. For drivers and artists who decorate their vehicles, Pakistani trucks are more than just trucks.
Near the main trade route between Islamabad and Rawalpindi, there are artists, welders, metal workers, horn sellers and electricians, all busy beautifying and decorating the huge vehicles parked in the garden. Its expansive space, called the carriage factory area, is dedicated to the maintenance and care of creations that serve a utilitarian purpose – transporting goods from place to place – while looking and sounding as impressive as possible.
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"We make sure that when a truck hits the road, it looks good. It has a varied beauty," says Mughal. "It has to look its best, so that's what we're trying to do."
"When we decorate it, we hope people will look at our truck with love," says Muhammad Ejaz Mughal, a former truck artist who learned the trade from his father. Claire Harbage/hide caption
"When we decorate it, we hope people will look at our truck with love," says Muhammad Ejaz Mughal, a former truck artist who learned the trade from his father.
People are putting the finishing touches on some artistic elements that will add to the truck's decor, including bells for the rear (left) and reflective plastic that will help the trucks stand out at night (right). Claire Harbage/hide caption
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People are putting the finishing touches on some artistic elements that will add to the truck's decor, including bells for the rear (left) and reflective plastic that will help the trucks stand out at night (right).
Scholars have traced evidence of decorated transport on the subcontinent for thousands of years. The Pakistani practice of painting trucks began to gain popularity shortly after the country's independence. Mughal says his father, Haji Habib Rahman, was one of the country's first truck artists.
While trucks in India and other countries can be decorated, few are as extravagant – or as precise and meticulous – as Pakistani trucks.
Trucks big and small are covered in drawings, colorful stickers and fantastic paint - hearts, flowers, peacocks, movie stars, folk singers, animals, politicians, angels and army generals. Chains hanging from the bottom rattle and sway as the truck stops and turns.
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Above: Irfan Muhammad, 40, has been painting trucks for 20 years. Bottom left: Many paintings by Muhammad. Right: Muhammad's favorite subject to paint is peacocks. Claire Harbage/hide caption
Above: Irfan Muhammad, 40, has been painting trucks for 20 years. Bottom left: Many paintings by Muhammad. Right: Muhammad's favorite subject to paint is peacocks.
These are verses in swirls of calligraphy that express the loneliness of the long-distance truck driver: "A me amata", says an Urdu couple in the back of a truck, "I am surprised to see you on the bank of the river sea. I am in the middle of the sea in trouble, and now go to the beach.
Styles vary by region, and in Rawalpindi, people tend to prefer the truck art that Mughal describes as "disco". Embossed and mirrored metal shine and shine - not just outside, but inside the drivers' cabins as well. In recent years, some trucks have started to add multi-color lights.
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Pakistani anthropologist and filmmaker Samar Minallah Khan says the Pakistani tradition of truck art is special in part because it overturns assumptions about truck drivers.
"It's just celebrating your culture, your way of life," she says. "You see they are artists. They are poets. They have a sense of humor. They are nature lovers. They are into, you know, so many things that need to be celebrated."
People make adjustments to some elements of a truck window. Additional pieces are welded together to create a decorative frame, while others work to clean up the front of the vehicle and add ornate stickers to the front bumper. Claire Harbage/hide caption
People make adjustments to some elements of a truck window. Additional pieces are welded together to create a decorative frame, while others work to clean up the front of the vehicle and add ornate stickers to the front bumper.
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There are over 200,000 registered trucks on Pakistan's roads - and likely many more in total, as the informal nature of the industry makes a complete count difficult. Trucks remain the main means of transporting goods due to the poor condition of the country's rail system.
Often loaded to the brim, they stretch along highways, up and down rugged mountain roads and into city streets, hauling their tons of goods - everything from gravel, cement and bricks to grain, cotton and fruit. Many are majestic old Bedford trucks, no longer in production.
Electrician Muhammad Ishaq, 50, works on a series of lights for the front of a truck. Claire Harbage/hide caption
Javed Iqbal (left) owns Hassan Autos, where he sells horns and other parts for trucks. Barkat Ali (right) introduces himself as "Barkat Ali, Body Maker", a reference to his unique workshop, where he and his colleagues are experts in maintaining, building and decorating truck bodies. "Our work has a certain level of perfection when we do it," he says. Claire Harbage/hide caption
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Javed Iqbal (left) owns Hassan Autos, where he sells horns and other parts for trucks. Barkat Ali (right) introduces himself as "Barkat Ali, Body Maker", a reference to his unique workshop, where he and his colleagues are experts in maintaining, building and decorating truck bodies. "Our work has a certain level of perfection when we do it," he says.
Trucks need to be reconditioned and repainted regularly. Jamal Elias, professor at the University of Pennsylvania and author of
, estimated that trucks need to be repainted approximately every five years. Complete restructuring costs thousands of dollars, say traders in the Rawalpindi railcar factory area, and could require the work and expertise of as many as four dozen people.
In a street in Rawalpindi, trucks lined up next to each other waiting for the attention and repair of the mechanics and artists who work there. Claire Harbage/hide caption
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In a street in Rawalpindi, trucks lined up next to each other waiting for the attention and repair of the mechanics and artists who work there.
Crouched beside a truck in the workshop, a painter named Irfan Muhammad puts the finishing touches on a mountain valley scene in green, orange, blue and red. He has been painting trucks for 20 years. His favorite subject is peacocks - he admires their beauty - but other truck artists prefer different animals, often for symbolic effect.
Sometimes, says Mughal, "They paint a lion, and the lion is hunting a deer or something - so strong that this truck is the lion. It is the best and it is the fiercest truck, [more] than the others. "
Others prefer more spiritual emblems of power: some want their vehicles to have a representation of the Buraq, the winged horse that carried the prophet Mohammed to heaven.
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The images and drawings that appear on a Pakistani truck reflect the wishes of its owner and driver, but, says Mughal, artists "are those whose imagination dominates the art of the truck and can convince the owner if they want to."
Left: An eagle is painted on the back of a truck. Right: The front of the imposing truck is covered in small lights, which create dazzling effects at night. Claire Harbage/hide caption
Left: An eagle is painted on the back of a truck. Right: The front of the imposing truck is covered in small lights, which create dazzling effects at night.
Drivers have their choice when it comes to horns. Some are vibrant and melodious, others wail or shriek like a train whistle, and even some good old sirens. All of them are impossible to ignore.
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In his shop, Javed Iqbal vocalizes some of the horn sounds for visitors. Many drivers ask for the "rail wallah" horn, he says, the one that sounds like a train. And for those who don't want to choose just one
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